First time I heard about The Fall of Otrar, it was 1999. Maybe. Some film nerd at a bar mumbled about a “Kazakh Kurosawa” while wiping vodka foam off his beard. I forgot about it—until now.
Cut to 2024. Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation slaps a 4K restoration on this thing, and suddenly, it's playing at NYFF like some long-buried prophecy. Funny how that works. A movie about an empire crumbling right as ours does the same? Coincidence? Sure. But the kind that makes you check your locks twice.
Ardak Amirkulov's 1991 film—shot on a shoestring, shelved, then resurrected—is not your typical swords-and-sandals snoozefest. It's Tarkovsky meets Ran, if both directors were hopped up on fermented mare's milk. Sepia-toned court intrigues. Black-and-white battle chaos. A hero (Dokhdurbek Kydyraliyev) screaming into the void about an invasion nobody believes is coming. Sound familiar?
Unjukhan, a Kipchak soldier turned defector, tries to warn Khwarazm's ruler about Genghis Khan's impending attack. He's ignored. Then imprisoned. Then—well, the title spoils it. But here's the kicker: the film's not really about Mongols. It's about the idiots in charge who think walls and arrogance will save them. Spoiler: they don't.
Janus Films is rolling this out in U.S. theaters starting August 1, 2025 (Lincoln Center first, because of course). Smart move. Between Napoleon flopping and Furiosa underwhelming, maybe audiences are hungry for historical epics that don't feel like Wikipedia entries with a budget.
Maybe because the world's back to eating itself alive. Maybe because we've all met an Unjukhan—the guy waving red flags while the suits smirk. Or maybe because, 800 years later, the fall of Otrar isn't history. It's a warning label.
If this restoration does one thing, let it be this—prove that the best war films aren't about battles. They're about the deafness of power. And damn, does that echo.
